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by gibspaulding
38 days ago
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Thank you for that context. I’m probably going to get down voted for this, but that doesn't sound like a bad deal. They’re giving up tax dollars that the region wouldn’t have received anyway without the project in exchange for a big (admittedly temporary) economic stimulus while the data center is built. I live in a relatively small rust belt town that’s seen several data center projects recently, and while they have slightly increased the cost of electricity, they’re also employing a ton of people at well above market wages, plus bringing in out of town labor who are spending their checks at local businesses and paying taxes on those checks locally. Make hay while the sun shines. |
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* you offer a tax break to a guy who was going to come anyway
* you give away the entire surplus - i.e. the sales tax is how you were going to see things anyway
* you don't capture any of the non-tax surplus (i.e. not many jobs, or jobs are all across county lines)
Some of these are fine because states should make cross-county decisions but the others are a matter of negotiation and I think states find they see more money if they advertise willingness a priori with a durable promise. Overall, I think it's hard to be in the position. I would probably also do what they did, but if someone used any of those justifications to not do it, I would probably also understand.